Finishing our basement…the fireplace

Slowly, but surely we’re still finishing the basement. We needed a break from it over the Christmas Holiday, but we’re back in the saddle again.

Billy added the rock hearth, and used some very old beams my father had set aside to build the mantle. I love the way it sort of has a rustic/modern look. Oh, and the cords coming from the bottom of the TV aren’t normally there, but Manny was playing a game when I came down to take pictures, and I didn’t have the heart to ask him to unplug them.

Rustic/modern, that sort of sums up how we’d like the whole look of the basement to turn out, but it’s hard to break old decorating habits.

Upstairs is fairly traditional, with some eclectic thrown in. For example, this is our breakfast room, and it’s in need of some freshening up. Maybe a paint color change, but that’s a blog for another day. Anyway, I’m trying to avoid making the basement just an extension on the same  decorating style as upstairs. It’s hard.

Back to the basement.

The large piece of wood on the mantle top is magnolia. You can’t get much more Southern than magnolia, plus I love the way it looks.

I love the natural curve of it.

And Billy added some wooden pegs to complete the rustic feel.

Before…

After.

We’re not completely finished with it. I’ve got to come up with something to go inside the fireplace where we now have it painted grey/green. I’m thinking I’m going to use wine corks to finish this area. I hope it works, and ends up looking good.

I’ll let you know!

Thanks for stopping by,

Caroline